The provision Of a raised wooden outside deck is commonplace in a great many North American homes, frequently being combined with sliding patio doors that give access to the deck or patio.
Such decks are usually built of lumber, having a supporting frame and sub-structure, including joists and headers, to which a decking of solid board lumber is nailed. Many decks are subject to severe climatic conditions that cause shrinking and working of the boards, leading to cracking of the boards and partial drawing of the nails. This is both unsightly, and a safety hazard, while the nails can rust and cause discoloration.
Such decks are frequently painted, for cosmetic purposes, the presence of so many nails making a natural wood finish impractical.
In a painted deck of continuous, nailed-down boards the nature of the decking and the usually confined sub-structure virtually precludes ready painting of the under surfaces thereof. Thus the upward passage of moisture through the boards tends to lift the paint, with consequent short life term.
A form of wooden deck tread or "tile" has previously been developed, having a nail-less structure, in which a wooden surface of deck tread units is laid upon concrete sub-flooring, such as balconies and the like, in the manner of laying tiles.
The deck tread units comprise lateral tread bars, the ends of which are threaded upon a rope-like tying element such as a hollow plastic hose. Each end of the tread bars is drilled, laterally, to provide an aperture into which the tying element is inserted. This construction is time consuming and expensive to machine, particularly in the drilling of the end apertures, while the insertion of the flexible tying elements is laborious, time consuming and difficult. Such tread units are unsuited for use with a suspended deck system, due to the undue skewing flexibility, and difficulty in maintaining dimensional standardization.
Certain other somewhat less relevant aspects of modular decking or patio structures are to be found in U.S. Pat. Nos:
3,300,936 January 1967, Travaglia
4,028,858 June 1977, Rehbein
4,628,645 December 1986, Tafelski
4,999,964 March 1991, Taylor